Neo-Nazism

A video footage from 2005 has emerged showing nearly the entire Golden Dawn leadership (Michaloliakos, Kassidiaris, Panagiotaros, Germenis, Matthaiopoulos and others) participating in a concert featuring Nazi salutes, the Nazi German war flag & the singing of the first verse of “Deutschland über alles.”

The slogans chanted from the crowd are the classic hate cries of the Hitler movement and are shouted in German: “Sieg Heil!” and “Juden raus!” (Jews out). They are raised in honour of two German Nazi performers, Michael Müller and Annett Müller. As the crowd shouts “Juden raus” Michael Müller interrupts them to say, in English: “Not only out. But exterminated.”

Neo-Nazis from AME (Unaligned Meander Nationalists) have sprayed Nazi graffiti in Greece’s third-largest city, Patras, and then boasted of their vandalism on their website. This is nothing new: Back in February 2016, they posed in Patras again executing Nazi salutes alongside newly-painted neo-Nazi graffiti. The said group has claimed responsibility for the vandalism of numerous Jewish monuments and cemeteries.

«KOSOVO IS SERBIA! SOLIDARITY WITH SERBS, OUR BROTHERS! Declaration of Kosovo’s independence by one side, by Albanian Nationalist Government of Kosovo (UCK), has as consequence attack on national sovereignty of Serbia and violation on every meaning of international law, is a proof of direct involving of Judeo-American politics on the Balkans, but also a result of long lasting politics of ethnic ‘cleansing’ of Serbs which began by NATO bombing, 1999. By cynical awarding of ‘autonomous’ gang of Albanian killers, dealers of drug and white slaves (UCK), allegedly in the name of democracy, real face of world globalization process is being revealed. It reveals an intention to fragment the Balkans with the goal of creating dependent protectorates. Our fatherland is for a long time a target. In the plans of world ruler, Thrace, Macedonia and Chamurija are after Kosovo… As Greek nationalists, we are expressing support to our Serbian brothers, which has also been proved in the past. We are giving our solidarity to a common fight for national sovereignty and independence. GOLDEN DAWN, Greek nationalist party». English translation of the proclamation via https://archive.is/rTL5q

Investigations by journalists and activists over the years have revealed articles in the Golden Dawn magazine admiring Hitler, and found images of Golden Dawn members giving Nazi salutes.

A recent survey by XYZ Contagion revealed the active involvement of Golden Dawn members in the Srebrenica massacre (July 1995).

This research presents for the first time evidence, documents, testimonies, and visual evidence that shows that “Greek Golden Dawn members, fascists and others were present during the whole week of the atrocities in Srebrenica. They were present exactly at the places, fields, warehouses and football fields, at the time that mass executions of detained Bosnian Muslims were taking place, during the digging of mass graves where the men and boys had been taken […]. They had a very close relationship to elite paramilitary mercenaries of the Serb-Bosnian army. According to evidence of the International Court of Justice, they were also photographing the prisoners who were about to be executed and the executions themselves”. Stratis Bournazos:The Srebrenica massacre and the role of the Greek volunteers: a revealing investigation by XYZ Contagion on Golden Dawn members involvement (June 2015)

The nazi gang is boasting for the participation of its members in the war in Bosnia by the side of the Serb national-cleansers. At the frontpage of “Chrysi Avgi” newspaper, no. 110, 1995: “Greek patriots are fighting in the battlefronts of Bosnia by the side of the Serbs. Amongst them members of Chrysi Avgi”. Text & frontpage via http://antinazi.gr/image/web/p39eg.htm

The Greek antisemitic organization “Unaligned Meander Nationalists” (Greek abbreviation: AME) recently posted propaganda pictures of Neo-Nazis performing the Nazi salute in front of racist and antisemitic graffiti in Patras, Greece’s third largest city. The Neo-Nazis claim to be the “Autonomous National Socialists of Patras”. Some of the graffiti read “You Too Can Kill An Albanian”, “We Want Jobs and Not Immigrants”, “National Socialism Now” and “Juden Raus”; they’ re always accompanied by swastikas.

The “Unaligned Meander Nationalists” have signed numerous desecrations of Jewish Monuments and Cemeteries in Greece.

Update: Panayote Dimitras from the NGO Greek Helsinki Monitor told Against Antisemitism that a complaint for previous racist acts of AME and Combat 18 has been filed.

Education Minister Nikos Filis found himself isolated and under attack Tuesday after becoming entangled in the issue of the slaughter of tens of thousands of Black Sea, or Pontic, Greeks by Turks almost a century ago and arguing that it was a case of ethnic cleansing rather than genocide.

Appearing on a late night TV show on Star on Monday, Filis defended previous comments he had made about the killings, arguing that he still believed they were a case of ethnic cleansing even though Greece has officially recognized it as genocide since 1994, designating May 19 an annual day of remembrance.

[…]

The other opposition parties also criticized the minister’s comments, with Golden Dawn claiming it will take legal action against Filis under an anti-racism law passed in September 2014, which criminalizes denial of historical acts of genocide, including that of the Black Sea Greeks, and leaves offenders facing up to three years in jail.

Greece 2015: The Nazis and Holocaust deniers of Golden Dawn party are presenting themselves as the defenders of persecuted minorities.

The entrance of the Jewish Cemetery in Nikaia (an area outside Athens) was vandalized with threatening graffiti featuring nazi symbols (see photos below), reported today the Jewish Community of Athens. This cemetery is adjacent to the 3rd Cemetery of Athens. Its use started just after the War when the Municipality of Athens gave this area to the Jewish Community.

Credit: The Jewish Community of Athens (athjcom.gr)

Update: Greek nazi & antisemitic organization “C18 Hellas” posted pictures of the vandalism online, claiming responsibility for the action. They seem to cooperate with the nazi organization “Unaligned Meander Nationalists” (Greek abbreviation: AME). AME, which declares to be a hardcore radical and nationalistic organization and separates itself from “moderate nationalists” of Golden Dawn, has signed the desecration of the Holocaust Monument in the island of Rhodes in October 2012, the desecration of the Holocaust Monument in Athens in October 2014 and the vandalism of the Jewish Cemetery of Larissa in January 2015.

On December 30th, 2014, the Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea published a photo showing two extreme right Golden Dawn MPs, Nikos Michaloliakos and Christos Pappas, giving a nazi salute after the announcement of the third and unsuccessful ballot result for the election of the President of the Hellenic Republic.

Via Panayote Dimitras (facebook)

Past September, the Greek newspaper I Kathimerini released a video apparently showing Christos Pappas teaching two children how to give the Nazi salute and chant “Heil Hitler.”

According to recent opinion polls, Golden Dawn remains the third most popular party in Greece.

The League of the South seems to know no limits in how far to the right it will go. After years of increasingly violent rhetoric and warnings of unrest, (LOS) President Michael Hill has now announced that the LOS will “make contact” with the neo-Nazi and neo-fascist Greek organization Golden Dawn, a group that associations with a year ago would have been certain to prohibit LOS membership.

In a cryptic message posted to Facebook last week, Hill promised: “We will establish contact with GD (Golden Dawn) very soon.” To what extent and to what end remain unclear.

Contacting Golden Dawn in a show of solidarity represents one more development in the League’s changing attitudes toward the more radical elements of the extremist right. From warning of impending insurrection, to forming secret paramilitary organizations, the League has gotten increasingly extreme in recent years. But aligning with the Golden Dawn does come as an unexpected surprise.

Since 2012, when the Golden Dawn claimed 18 of the Greek Parliament’s 300 seats, the party has embraced its fascist and neo-Nazi ideological underpinnings. They have made use of Nazi symbolism and have praised figures from Nazi Germany. Its members have taken xenophobic stances on immigration, and engaged in acts of violence.